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Soup

Modern Cookery

A soup made from veal, calf's head, ham, and vegetables, simmered until the meat falls off the bones.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Simmer veal with carrots, onion, celery, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and salt until the meat falls from the bones.

  2. Strain the broth.

  3. Let the broth cool.

  4. Remove the fat.

Prepare and cook the head

  1. Bone the calf's head, keeping the skin on.

  2. Return the bones to the pot.

  3. Roll the head and secure it with twine.

  4. Pour broth over the head.

  5. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil.

  6. Skim the surface.

  7. Simmer for 1 to 1.25 hours.

Finish

  1. Transfer the head to a deep pan.

  2. Add the soup to the pan.

  3. Let it cool to prevent dark edges.

  4. Dice the ham, removing fat and rind.

  5. Prepare eschalots.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Carrot + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle or neck
Simmers into a rich broth, giving the soup body and savory depth.
Calf's head with skin
Provides gelatinous collagen that sets as the broth cools, giving the dish its structure.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor that contrasts with the mild broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Onion
Contributes aromatic depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Let it cool to prevent dark edges. Cooling the head in its broth lets it set gradually; hot handling or rapid temperature change can cloud the gel and darken the surface, so the cook should allow slow cooling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, onion, celery, ham):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, onion, celery, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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